Gas leak forces evacuation of Bole Hall and Annex

Bole Hall was evacuated due to a gas leak which posed a risk to those occupying the building in the late morning on Monday.

At around 10:30 a.m., construction workers repairing the sidewalk near the building struck a gas line, forcing a full evacuation of the office. Firefighters quickly turned off the gas and subsequently closed the building for two hours.

Emails and text messages were sent out to all Rowan faculty and students notifying of the evacuation in progress via the Rowan Alert system. Once the officials declared the area to be safe, an “all clear” was sent out as well.

Vice President of University Relations Joe Cardona was confident there was no risk of the building exploding or any damages caused to the structure.

“It [was] just a gas leak,” Cardona said. “It’s not an uncommon emergency. If you don’t recall, we had a gas leak because of construction about a year and a half ago by Edgewood apartments. They were doing construction outside and they hit a line. It was just an accident.”

Cardona went on to explain that construction workers often “mark out” the portions of the roads where gas lines can be found, but occasionally are still ruptured from a slight misjudgment or mistake in equipment use.

“The line was ruptured. The fire department came out, which is protocol, and they made sure that the building is evacuated and they turn off the gas then they are able to repair it,” Cardona said.